Château de Villeneuve

The château stands at Souzay, on a plateau overlooking the Loire, and is an eighteenth-century tuffeau building. Wine has been made here since the sixteenth century. Robert Chevallier bought the property in 1969.

The bedrock explains the whole landscape here: the vineyard sits on the limestone bed from which tuffeau is quarried, the soft white stone the Loire châteaux were built from. The same rock that holds the vines is the one the house is made of.

Twenty-five hectares split between the two Loire varieties: twenty of cabernet franc and five of chenin blanc.

Jean-Pierre Chevallier, an oenologist, has led the work in the vineyard and the cellar.

They farm without herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilisers, certified organic since 2009.